Oral Myiasis

**kellyhound** · #11 ● 03-29-2023, 03:52 PM

Myiasis is derived from a Latin word “Muia,” which means fly and “iasis,” which means disease. The term was coined by Hope in 1840 and defined by Zumpt.

It is a pathological condition in which there is an infestation of living mammals with the dipterous larvae, which, at least for a certain period feed on the host's dead or living tissue and develop as parasites.

The term myiasis refers to infestation of living tissues of animals or humans by diptera larvae. The species of flies that cause myiasis are Cochiliomyia hominivorax, known as the screw worm fly, Dermatobia hominis or human botfly, Sacrophagidae species, Alouttamyia baeri and Anastrepha species family.

Myiasis can be classified clinically as primary (larvae feed on the living tissue) and secondary (larvae feed on dead tissue).

Depending on the condition of the involved tissue it is classified into accidental myiasis (larvae ingested along with food), semi-specific myiasis (larvae laid on necrotic tissue in wounds) and obligatory myiasis (larvae affecting undamaged skin).

Further classification can be based on the site as cutaneous, external orifice, internal organs and generalized.

The most common anatomic sites for myiasis are the nose, eye, lung, ear, anus, vagina and more rarely, the mouth.

Incidence of oral myiasis as compared to that of cutaneous myiasis is less as the oral tissues are not permanently exposed to the external environment.